Students in the “Instruments and Culture” music course at Wabash College will present a public display of instruments they built from Friday, April 29 until Friday, May 6 in the front lobby of Ball Theater in the Fine Arts Center.
The “Instruments and Culture” course introduces students to world music instrumental cultures with an emphasis on organology. The course culminates in a final course project which requires students to design and build an instrument by constructing either a replica of an existing instrument, a modified traditional/folk instrument, or creating a totally new musical instrument (in design).
This year’s final class projects are interestingly varied and include: three chordophones: a Chinese zither, a Latin American vihuela, and an African bow harp; two aerophones: a Pakistani three-pipe flute and a Native American love flute; two idiophones: an American tongue drum and a Ugandan xylophone; and three membranophones: a Mali djembe drum, a Mandinka djembe drum, and a Ghanaian atsimevu drum.
Students and their instruments they are displaying includes: Gabriel Guerrero ’08 (Vihuella); Raymond Green ’08 (Bow Harp); Zuber Ahmed ’07 (Native American Love Flute); Brock Medsker ’05 (Tongue Drum); Homer L. Twigg IV ’08 (Chinese zither); John Porch ’07 (Djembe); Clayton Craig ’08 (Djembe); Mohammad Saad Tahir ’06 (Bansuri Flute set); Haris Amin ’08 (Atsimevu pair); and Josh Levering ’05 (Amadinda).
The exhibit is free and open to the public.